When we first got hold of Escentric 01 and Molecule 01, the two foundation scents from olfactory genius Geza Schoen, we weren't ready for the landslide of questions. "Excuse me, errm, what is that scent? Who's wearing..what are you wearing? Where did you get it? Where can I get it?" From bicycle couriers, shop girls and fashion models to middle-aged cafe owners and the odd aunty here and there, the questions kept on coming providing the wearer with a degree of satisfaction. Molecule 01 was a radical concept, a scent comprising basically only one element "ISO E Super", a foundation component of numerous everyday kitchen products and cleansers - not your average Paris fragrance lab where the piano is playing 1000 notes while scents bubble in gilded, golden vats component then! Nevertheless the aroma worked, and big time. So it is with much excitement that we anticipate the arrival of stage 2 of this fragrant success story. Just like Escentric 01 and Molecule 01, Escentric 02 and Molecule 02 are based upon a single ingredient with Escentric being the blended version and Molecule, the basic, indefinable radiance. However, this time rather than using ISO E Super as a base, the new range is founded upon ambroxan, an extract of the elusive, highly valuable ambergris.
To those who don't know, this fabulous raw material for the creation of perfumes is actually a discharge from sperm whales which tumbles around the ocean gathering strength of scent before washing up on the foreshore around the world. I know of people who have actually found the precious lumps, not too different in shape and size to pumice, whilst walking on the beach at Muriwai. Several thousand dollars later and they're now taking more beach walks than normal and carrying little knapsacks when they do. Unfortunately the outrageous cost of extraction from pure ambergris makes it impossible to include (in a perfume that most of us can afford) so Geza has once again put his thinking cap on and created a nature-identical aroma-molecule to mirror ambroxan, the best-smelling part of ambergris.
Escentric 02, adds vetiver and muscone, a lovely nature-identical musk to create a clear, clean scent that "dries down to something warm and sexy". We love it - and you can too - as we have two bottles of the precious scent to give away here on BlackLOG. They are available exclusively through Karen Walker in NZ at an RRP of NZ $215 per bottle, but you can be in with a chance to win simply by voting on our Great Fashion Photographers poll on the right hand sidebar of BlackLOG and then emailing grant@blackmag.co.nz with your choice or choices. Offer closes August 30 and we will draw the winners then.
